2012 Book Reviews First Quarter

This is what the current book list (at the end of the first quarter) looks like:

1. *7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey
2. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
3. 130 Projects To Get You Into Filmmaking - Grove
4. 1491 - Charles C. Mann
5. A Concise History of Indian Art - Roy C. Craven
6. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
7. A History of India 1 - Romila Thapar
8. A History of India 2 - Percival Spear
9. *A House in Gross Disorder - Cynthia B. Herrup
10. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
11. A Lexicon of Terror - Marguerite Feitlowitz
12. A Nation in Waiting - Adam Schwartz
13. A New History of India - Stanley Wolpert
14. *A Spy's Revenge - Richard V. Hall
15. A Tale Of Millions: Bangladesh Liberation War - M. Rafiqul Islam
16. Adventures in the Skin Trade - Dylan Thomas
17. Agnes Smedley - J.R. & S.R. MacKinnon
18. Alexander The Great - W.W. Tarn
19. *Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim
20. An Advanced History of India - Majumdar, Raychaudhari, & Datta
21. Angle of Repose - Wallace Stegner
22. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
23. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
24. Bangladesh From Mujib to Ershad, an interpretive study - Lawrence Ziring
25. Beating the Blues - Thase & Lang
26. *Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
27. Being Wrong - Kathryn Schultz
28. *Bird by Bird - Anne Lamott
29. Black Dog of Fate - Peter Balakian
30. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
31. Cambodia's Hidden Scars - Beth van Schaak, Daryn Reicherter, eds.
32. Captains of Consciousness - Stuart Ewen
33. Ceylon - S. Arasaratnam
34. China's Second Revolution - Harry Harding
35. Chinese Customs - Henri Dore
36. Chinese Warlord - The Career of Feng Yu Hsiang - James E. Sheridan
37. Cinema, Emergence, & The Films of Satyajit Roy - Keya Ganguly
38. Clarissa - Samuel Richardson
39. Colonial Masculinity - Mrinalini Sinha
40. Crime and Punishment - Dostoevsky
41. Death in Venice - Thomas Mann
42. Death of Somoza - Claribel Alegria & Darwin Flakoll
43. Decolonizing the Mind - Ngugi wa Thiong'o
44. Desis in the House - Sunaina Maira
45. Dharma and Development - Joanna Macy
46. *Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
47. Discos and Democracy - Orville Schell
48. *Don Quixote - Cervantes
49. Dread - The Rastafarians of Jamaica - Joseph Owens
50. Enemies of the People - Anne F. Thurston
51. Escape From Tyranny - Zulkifli Ahmed
52. Extraordinary Popular Delusions - Charles Mackay
53. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
54. Facets of Taoism - Holmes Welch & Anna Seidel
55. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox
56. *Finnegan's Wake - James Joyce
57. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
58. First Person Singular - Joyce Carol Oates
59. Flash of the Spirit - Robert Farris Thompson
60. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
61. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
62. Folklore From Contemporary Jamaicans - Daryl C. Dance
63. Folklore of Tamil Nadu - S.M.L. Lakshman Chettiar
64. *Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
65. Gandhi - Louis Fischer
66. Gandhi's Truth — On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence - Erik H. Erikson
67. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
68. *Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston
69. Gotta Have It - Spike Lee
70. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
71. Granta on Film
72. Heritage of China - Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization - Ed. Paul S. Ropp
73. Hell In A Very Small Place - Bernard Fall
74. *Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
75. Herzog - Saul Bellow
76. Hinduism - Its Historical Development - Troy Wilson Organ
77. *I Can Make You Thin - Paul McKenna
78. In One's Own Shadow - Xin Liu
79. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
80. India Wins Freedom - Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
81. Indian Art - Philip Rawson
82. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
83. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
84. IsvarChandra Vidyasagar - Subal Chandra Mitra
85. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
86. Laogai - The Chinese Gulag - Harry Wu Hong da
87. *Lempriere's Dictionary - Lawrence Norfolk
88. Leviathan - Hobbes
89. Light in August - William Faulkner
90. Look Homeward Angel - Thomas Wolfe
91. Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries - Michael Pollak
92. Mandate of Heaven - Orville Schell
93. Masters of Light - Schaefer & Salvato
94. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan - Melody Ermachild Chavis
95. Microeconomic Theory - Gould & Ferguson
96. Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh - Amy Raphael, ed.
97. My Traitor's Heart - Rian Malan
98. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon Juan
99. Nakshi Kantha of Bengal - Sila Basak
100. Norodom Sihanouk: My War With The CIA - Wilfred Burchett
101. One Blood — The Jamaican Body - Elisa Janine Sobo
102. Orientalism - Edward W. Said
103. Our Lady of Controversy - Alma Lopez
104. *Outwitting the Gestapo - Lucie Aubrac
105. Painting Islam as the New Enemy -
106. Pearl S. Buck, A Cultural Biography - Peter Conn
107. Personal Voices - Chinese Women in the '80s - Emily Honig & Gail Hershatter
108. Physics and Philosophy - Werner Heisenberg
109. Physiology of the Human Body - Guyton
110. Popular Songs and Ballads of Han China - Anne Birrele
111. Primitive Art - Frank Boas
112. *Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
113. Punjabi Century 1857-1947 - Prakash Tandon
114. Rasta & Resistance - Horace Campbell
115. Rastafari Roots & Ideology - Barry Chevannes
116. Reading Lolita In Teheran - Azar Nafisi
117. Red China Blues - Jan Wong
118. Reeducating Chinese Anti-Communists - J.A. Fyfield
119. Resistance and Reform in Tibet -
120. Revolution Postponed - Margery Wolf
121. River of Shadows - Rebecca Solnit
122. Roots of Rastafari - Virginia Lee Jacobs
123. Rosie - Anne Lamott
124. Rural Development in China - Fei Hsiao Tung
125. Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (The Biography Of A Master Film-Maker - Andrew Robinson
126. Sayles on Sayles - Gavin Smith, ed.
127. Screenwriting 434 - Lew Hunter
128. Shanghai Refuge, A Memoir of the WWII Jewish Ghetto - Ernest G. Heppner
129. Sherpas Through Their Rituals - Sherry B. Ortner
130. Shoot Me - Simonelli & Frumkes
131. Showdown - Jorge Amado
132. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin
133. Sisters in the Resistance - Margaret Collins Weitz
134. Sisters of Heaven - Gully
135. Son of the Revolution - Liang Heng & Judith Shapiro
136. Southern Africa Stands Up - Wilfred Burchett
137. Strangers Always A Jewish Family in Wartime Shanghai - Rena Krasno
138. Street Without Joy - Bernard Fall
139. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
140. The Adventures of Wu - H.Y. Lowe
141. The Argumentative Indian - Amartya Sen
142. The Art of the Novel - Milan Kundera
143. *The Audacity of Hope - Barak Obama
144. The Autobiography of An Unknown Indian - Nirad C. Chaudhary
145. The Bedroom of The Mister's Wife - Philip Hensher
146. The Bengal Muslims 1871 - 1906 - Ahmed
147. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
148. *The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
149. The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence - Victor Marchetti & John D. Marks
150. The City & The City - China Mieville
151. The Declaration of Independent Filmmaking - Polish, Polish, & Sheldon
152. The Devil Finds Work - James Baldwin
153. The Discovery of India - Jawaharlal Nehru
154. The Dragon Empress - Marina Warner
155. The Emergence of Modern Turkey - Bernard Lewis
156. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
157. The Forgotten Army (Indian Mutiny) - Peter Ward Fay
158. The Gate - Francois Bizot
159. The Gene Hunters Biotechnology and the scramble for seeds - Calestous Juma
160. The Gift - Lewis Hyde
161. The Great Hedge of India - Roy Moxham
162. The Idiot - Fyodor Dostoevsky
163. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong
164. The Journey to the West, Vol. 1 - Anthony Yu
165. *The Last Emperor - Edward Behr
166. The Lives of Agnes Smedley - Ruth Price
167. The March of Folly From Troy To Vietnam - Barbara W. Tuchman
168. The Men Who Ruled India Vol. I The Founders - Philip Woodruff
169. The Men Who Ruled India, Vol. II The Guardians - Philip Woodruff
170. *The Mind's I - Hofstadter & Dennett
171. The Mother Tongue - Bill Bryson
172. The New China - Alvin Rabushika
173. The Opium War Through Chinese Eyes - Arthur Waley
174. The Origins of Chinese Kongsi - Wang Tai Peng
175. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
176. The Politics of Sri Lanka - Robert N. Kearney
177. The Politics of the Chinese Cultural Revolution - Lee Hong Yung
178. The Portable Dorothy Parker - Brendan Gill
179. The Rape of Bangladesh - Mascarenhas
180. The Rastafarians - Leonard E. Barrett, Sr.
181. The Remembered Village - M.N. Srinivasan
182. The Rig Veda - Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty, transl
183. *The Rise & Fall of the Knights Templar - Gordon Napier
184. The Sinkiang Story - Jack Chen
185. The Soong Dynasty - Sterling Seagrave
186. The Spirit of Chinese Politics - Lucian Pye
187. The Story of Zahra - Hanan al-Shaykh
188. The Ugly Chinaman - Bo Yang
189. The Unmaking of Malaysia -
190. The Voice At The Backdoor - Elizabeth Spencer
191. The Wilting of the Hundred Flowers - Mu Fu Sheng
192. Third World Filmmaking -
193. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
194. Transition to Neo-Confucianism - Anne D. Birdwhistell
195. Unmasking Najib -
196. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
197. Visionary Film - P. Adams Sitney
198. Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh - Wilfred Burchet
199. Wanted: Equality and Justice In The Muslim Family - Zainah Anwar, ed.
200. War and Peace - Tolstoy
201. When States Kill - Nestor Rodriguez, Cecilia Menjivar, eds.
202. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
203. West Indians And Their Language - Peter A. Roberts
204. Western Birds - Roger Tory Peterson
205. Wikileaks - David Leigh & Luke Harding
206. Wild Swans - Jung Chang
207. Witness to an Era - Frank Moraes
208. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -
209. Women in the Holocaust - Dalia Ofer, Lenore J. Weitzman, Eds.
210. Writers' Workshop in a Book - Cheuse and Alvarez
211. Yonnondio - Tillie Olsen
212. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan
213. Your Memory: A User's Guide - Alan Baddeley

Second Quarter Reading List in Order:

1. *Digital Filmmaking - Mike Figgis
2. *Among the White Moonfaces - Shirley Lim
3. The May 13 Generation - Poh Soo Kai, ed.
4. The Political Economy of Social Control in Singapore - Christopher Tremewan
5. Singapore Women Re-presented - Constance Singam and Audrey Chin 
6. Your Future, My Faith, Our Freedom - Chee Soon Juan
7. The Unmaking of Malaysia -
8. Time Bombs in Malaysia - Lim Kit Siang
9. Escape From Tyranny - Zulkifli Ahmed
10. Unmasking Najib -
11. Stress and Mental Health in Malaysian Society - Tan Chee Khuan
12. Wanted: Equality and Justice -
13. Gangsters and Revolutionaries - Robert Cribb
14. The Indonesian Revolution and The Singapore Connection - Yong Mun Cheong
15. Indonesian Confrontation - Gabriel Tan
16. A Nation in Waiting -
17. Women Creating Indonesia: The First Fifty Years -
18. Fighting Spirit of East Timor - Rowena Lennox
19. Asian Dragons & Green Trade - Simon Tay & Daniel Esty
20. Myths About The Ethnic Chinese "Economic Miracle" - Joaquin Sy & Go Bon Juan
21. Fire In The Lake - Frances Fitzgerald
22. Flower Of The Dragon - Richard Boyle
23. Grasshoppers and Elephants - Wilfred Burchett
24. Flashbacks - Morley Safer
25. Viet Nam and Ho Chi Minh - Wilfred Burchet
26. *Following Ho Chi Minh - Bui Tinh
27. *Hero And Deity - Pham Quynh Phuong
28. *Before Kampuchea - Milton Osborne
29. Facing the Cambodian Past - David Chandler
30. A History of Democratic Kampuchea - Khamboly Dy
31. Victims and Perpetrators - Ea Meng-try & Sorya Sim
32. Incursion: From America's Chokehold on the NVA Lifelines to the Sacking of the Cambodian Sanctuaries - J.D. Coleman
33. Into Cambodia - Keith William Nolan
34. Khmers Stand Up! - Justin Corfield
35. Cambodia Silenced: The Press Under 6 Regimes - Harish Mehta
36. The British Humiliation of Burma - Terence R. Blackburn
37. A Journalist, A General, and An Army in Burma - U Thaung
38. Who Killed Aung San? - Kin Oung
39. Back to Mandalay - Gerry Abbott
40. *The Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
41. *50 Stories - Kay Boyle
42.  *Getting Organized - Stephanie Winston

Read:

1. Middlemarch - George Eliot****
The more I read Eliot the more I admire her. What a writer!
Can You Forgive Her? - Anthony Trollope**
2. The Butcher Boy - Patrick McCabe***
3. Murder Through The Looking Glass - Mike Venning Fluff.
4. Futureland - Walter Moseley***
5. Phineas Finn - Anthony Trollope**
6. The End of The Affair - Graham Greene**
7. The Eustace Diamonds - Anthony Trollope**
8. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - James Joyce***
9. Dubliners - James Joyce***
10. May 13 - Kua Kim Soong** Good analysis.
11. The Mighty Wave - He Jin (Transl: Tan Jing Quee, Loh Miaw Gong, Hong Lysa)* Very interesting historically, but not well written.
12. Rule 34 - Charles Stross Fluff.
13. Designer Genes - Chee Heng Leng & Chan Chee Koon, eds.***
14. The Hatchet Man of Singapore - J.B. Jeyaretnam* Only for those with an interest in the political intricacies of Singapore.
15. Singapore The Air-Conditioned Nation - Cherian George* Tiresomely coy.
16. Self Censorship: Singapore's Shame - James Gomez*
17. Foreign Bodies - Tan Hwee HweeAWFUL
18. Pol Pot - Philip Short****
19. A History of Cambodia - David Chandler****

Not too shabby, 20 books in three months, considering I was (1) recovering from surgery (2) traveling and (3) dealing with illness all around. Trying for double the number in this quarter, but in my own defense, I've already read quite a few of these, just finishing 'em up, so. It looks like Southeast Asian history/politics is pretty much done for this year! Next for some South Asian history/art/culture/politics.